Film Reviews

The First Annual 'On Cinema' Oscar Special

Two zanies open a photography studio. They score a partnership with a gossip magazine that suddenly thrusts them into a world of corruption, murder, and hijinks.

Bloom Towne is a small-town sheriff under the thumb of the well-established, deeply influential Mayor Dick Cavanaugh's family. When Bloom's two teenage sons, Nate and Skylar accidentally shoot and kill Dick during a deer-hunt, Bloom's long-held allegiance to the reigning Cavanaugh clan is tested. Skylar (still a minor) decides to take the wrap for his older brother Nate, claiming he fired the fatal shot. The Cavanaugh family's quick retaliation sends Skylar on his way to county jail, soon to be tried as an adult. Desperate and guilt-ridden, Nate breaks Skylar out of jail and sets off a chain of lawless acts, which send them deep into the woods and on the run. Bloom's choice between the law and his sons leads to revelations of old family secrets that threaten to destroy everything he loves.

The movie starts at the 1998 bomb attack by the Real IRA at Omagh, Northern Ireland. The attack killed 31 people. Michael Gallagher one of the relatives of the victims starts an examination to bring the people responsible to court.

A young man brings his pet lion with him when he's drafted into the army. Comedy.

A look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios - from the success of "Toy Story" and Pixar's promotion of talented people, to the building of its East Bay campus, the company's relationship with Disney, and its remarkable initial string of eight hits. The contributions of John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs are profiled. The decline of two-dimensional animation is chronicled as three-dimensional animation rises. Hard work and creativity seem to share the screen in equal proportions.

Jonah and Ella Mazer are typical teenagers, but strange and frightening things are happening at their new school. They learn that all of their classmates are descendants of witches -- and the two are destined to die.

Take a captivating ride through nearly 150 years of entertaining history telling the story of the world's largest family controlled brewer. Meet Gerard Adriaan Heineken, who founded the first Heineken Brewery in 1864 and follow this extraordinary tale of pioneering adventure, relentless obsession for quality, persistent innovation, environmental sustainability, and celebrated sports and music events.

Roberto Benigni adapts the classic children's tale by Carlo Collodi for the big-budget family-oriented comedy Pinocchio.

Prince Paris of Troy, shipwrecked on a mission to the king of Sparta, meets and falls for Queen Helen before he knows who she is. Rudely received by the royal Greeks, he must flee...but fate and their mutual passions lead him to take Helen along. This gives the Greeks just the excuse they need for much-desired war.

Details the life of the Russian monk Rasputin. The film shows his rise to power and how it corrupted him. His sexual perversions and madness ultimatly leads to his gruesome assasination.

On July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside of a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises. A gunman, dressed in tactical clothing, set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. The sole suspect, James Eagan Holmes, was arrested outside the cinema minutes later.

A Mother's Courage (aka The Sunshine Boy) is a moving, compassionate portrayal of a mother's desperate quest to understand the perplexing condition that controls her son. A journey through different countries, where every stop-over opens a new path into the depths of autism - and places her son in a strikingly different perspective as it reaches the end.

It’s a black-and-white record of European cities in the dark (2-5am), from Basle to Belfast. Quiet, and meditative, what emerges most strongly is an eerie sense of city landscapes as deserted film sets, in which the desolate architecture overwhelms any sense of reality. The only reassurance that we are not in some endless machine-Metropolis is the shadow of daytime activity: a juggernaut plunging through a darkened village, a plague of small birds in the predawn light. The whole thing is underscored by a beautiful ‘composed’ soundtrack, from quietly humming streetlights to reggae and the rumble of armoured cars in Belfast. A strange and remarkable combination of dream, documentary and science-fiction.

Dr. Richard Thorndyke arrives as new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous to discover some suspicious goings-on. When he's framed for murder, Dr. Thorndyke must confront his own psychiatric condition, "high anxiety," in order to clear his name.